wjstixSo, if you don't mind me asking...is it true Philadelphia fans are as tough / bad as they say? I recall the story of the Philadelphia A's Gus Zernial breaking his collarbone on an outfield play in 1954, after it was announced the A's were moving to Kansas City the next year. When asked how he felt as he lay in extreme pain in the grass knowing most likely his season was over, he supposedly said all he thought was "thank God I don't have to play in Philadelphia anymore".
Before I switched to DCC, I met a DCC system rep at a train show. I mentioned how difficult it seemed to be, but he said we make it as difficult as we want. We can simply program, or get into the real deep programming. Not sure what the OP has experienced but hopefully you can simplify your programming and enjoy your system.
Now, back to Philly Sports. Yes, Philly is that tough. If you play with heart, you are loved. If you short arm a catch, play scared, do not play with heart, or any other cliche, you will be crucified. We love our heroes but if you even slightly turn, we will eat you alive. Wentz might well be an incredibly talented athlete, but he did not get Philly and after last season, the city turned on him. You can lose but if you play your heart out, we will love you. You can win but if you win without caring about us...
wjstix.is it true Philadelphia fans are as tough / bad as they say?
Don't know. You would have to ask a true Philadelphia fan. I do know that Eagles fans threw frozen snowballs at Santa one year.
And they actually had a jail and court set up at the old stadium to deal with the drunk and disorderly. However, they claimed that most of those arrested were from the surrounding area.
I don't believe that they ever booed an injured player. Probably all tired out from booing the uninjured Eagles players.
Yeah, but remember what was supposedly written on W.C.Field's tombstone... too bad it turns out, as with so many of these things, not to be true.
So, if you don't mind me asking...is it true Philadelphia fans are as tough / bad as they say? I recall the story of the Philadelphia A's Gus Zernial breaking his collarbone on an outfield play in 1954, after it was announced the A's were moving to Kansas City the next year. When asked how he felt as he lay in extreme pain in the grass knowing most likely his season was over, he supposedly said all he thought was "thank God I don't have to play in Philadelphia anymore".
wjstix As a friend of mine once said, sometimes a team just has a superior 'will to lose' that can't be overcome no matter how hard the other team tries to let them win.
As a friend of mine once said, sometimes a team just has a superior 'will to lose' that can't be overcome no matter how hard the other team tries to let them win.
Philadelphias motto
BillwizPlease dont bring facts into Philadelphia sports. We cannot handle those. And besides, we trust the "process" (until it hits us in the face). btw, are you from the Philly area?
Not originally. About 52 years' worth.
Prior to that from Massachusetts. There it was the Red Sox.
maxmanYes they did. And a couple guys lost their jobs over it. And so far as "outmaneuvering" goes, time will tell about that. The last big time they "outmaneuvered" they called that "Wentz". And he "wentzed" somewhere else. And because they all said he was "broken", the Beagles got very little in return. And it is not only the Beagles. We've got the Flyers, the Filthys, and probably the Sixers. But there is always an excuse. They call it the "process".
Please dont bring facts into Philadelphia sports. We cannot handle those. And besides, we trust the "process" (until it hits us in the face).
btw, are you from the Philly area?
BillwizThe Eagles did not choke, rather they engineered the end of the game to allow Washington into the playoffs rather then the Giants, effectively beating the Giants again. Then they outmaneuvered the Giants during the draft. Pretty well played, actually. Now as for the Flyers...
Yes they did. And a couple guys lost their jobs over it.
And so far as "outmaneuvering" goes, time will tell about that. The last big time they "outmaneuvered" they called that "Wentz". And he "wentzed" somewhere else. And because they all said he was "broken", the Beagles got very little in return.
And it is not only the Beagles. We've got the Flyers, the Filthys, and probably the Sixers. But there is always an excuse. They call it the "process".
Well I've been a Vikings fan since the 1960's so I know all about that type of "choke".
maxmanA "choke" is the new name for what a Philadelphia sports team does during the season.
The Eagles did not choke, rather they engineered the end of the game to allow Washington into the playoffs rather then the Giants, effectively beating the Giants again. Then they outmaneuvered the Giants during the draft. Pretty well played, actually.
Now as for the Flyers...
Fly Eagles Fly
I became a fan of the New York Giants in 1963. In the ensuing near quarter of a century I saw and learned far more about the various ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory than Philadelphians can likely conceive.
OvermodA 'choke' is the old name for an inductor
A "choke" is the new name for what a Philadelphia sports team does during the season.
A 'choke' is the old name for an inductor (an electrical component like a tiny coil of wire with a magnetic core). Called that in radio because it lets DC through but attenuates higher frequency.
By combining capacitors, inductors, and resistors you can build tuned filter circuits (LRC) and these are useful in building crossover networks that send different frequency ranges of an audio signal to different speaker drivers.
Texas Zephyr IDRick ... but adding sound is challenging for some of them. and that is the quote of the last three decades or so. It has been challenging to install sound since my first PFM system in 1982. After tens of installs, I still find it challenging with the older locomotives that don't have frames with a precut/premolded location for the speakers. What speaker(s) to use, where to cut the frame/body, where to port the sound to, down firing, up firing, how to keep things from vibrating, how to get full frequency response, where to fit crossover capacitors, chokes, and not tangle all the wires.... YIPEs. No surprise it is frustrating to a new person just getting into the noisy part of the hobby. And I haven't gotten to all those CVs that control all those things on a DCC sound decoder.
IDRick ... but adding sound is challenging for some of them.
and that is the quote of the last three decades or so. It has been challenging to install sound since my first PFM system in 1982. After tens of installs, I still find it challenging with the older locomotives that don't have frames with a precut/premolded location for the speakers.
What speaker(s) to use, where to cut the frame/body, where to port the sound to, down firing, up firing, how to keep things from vibrating, how to get full frequency response, where to fit crossover capacitors, chokes, and not tangle all the wires.... YIPEs. No surprise it is frustrating to a new person just getting into the noisy part of the hobby.
And I haven't gotten to all those CVs that control all those things on a DCC sound decoder.
You can buy a 1/2" by 1" speaker in an enclosure that will fit in pretty much any GP, SD or similar engine's long hood with no modification to the engine needed. "Firing up" and "Firing down" just means the speaker is facing up or down. If you're putting the speaker in the end of the long hood of a diesel, the best way to get the sound out is to install it with the speaker facing down so the sound comes out around the opening for the rear truck.
You don't usually need a capacitor, not sure what a "choke" is (my lawnmower has one, but it's not electric). You can cut the wires short when installing them.
CVs are optional, except I would argue for the engine ID. You can make the horn louder or the bell quieter if you want, but you can leave all the default settings and the decoder works fine.
For any engine built since at least 2000, installing sound means unplugging a dummy plug, plugging in the sound decoder, and connecting two wires from the speaker to the decoder, and putting the engine back together.
davidmurray DCC emergency stop stops everthing on layout, very embarassing first time at a new club!
DCC emergency stop stops everthing on layout, very embarassing first time at a new club!
The Lentz DCC System hand held throttles can be set to
1) Stop only the Loco number shown on the throttle.
2) Stop all the trains on the layout, but keep the layout energized.
3) Shuts down the whole layout. The track is dead.
If I didsn't like sound I would still use my aristo craft. Surprised some Chinnese company hasn't copied them like so much stuff. I do hav e a dead rail setup by arita that I may use some day, this is the HO version.
IDRick... but adding sound is challenging for some of them.
I run only one train at a time so I opted for the orange Basic Train Engineer, since that's what was available at the time. Bought a second one as a spare, and will keep them both.
As has been said, the lights come on with the first couple of pushes of the "speed step" button before the loco begins to creep slowly after about the fourth push.
With LED headlights, they come on bright, so the loco can sit there in DC with the lights on full brightness at "idle" like many locos do.
It does NOT do well with modern dual mode DC/DCC decoders. So if you want to run onboard sound on DC (and I don't know why you would), the TE is not the throttle for you.
- Douglas
SeeYou190 ATLANTIC CENTRAL Five simple buttons control the train - FASTER, SLOWER, EMERGENCY STOP, LEFT or RIGHT direction. Is the rate of accelleration/decelleration with the FASTER ad SLOWER buttons adjustable? I have never been a fan of momentum. Most of them take too long to get moving from zero. -Kevin
Kevin: There are five different degrees of momentum, adjusted by a single different button when setting up the throttle. I prefer the lowest setting. The highest setting was just to slow to react. The emergency stop button sets the power in your block to zero immediately, stopping your train, but not affecting any other cabs. DCC emergency stop stops everthing on layout, very embarassing first time at a new club!
Hope this helps
I went from running BB engines on DC slot car trigger throttles to a Marnold panel to MRC power packs to Aristo Craft hand held controls to Lentz DCC. The previous HO layout system was all Aristo Craft DC then the Lentz DCC system was added to one quarter of the layout. Now it is totally a Lentz DCC system.
I modified the Aristo Craft controls just a little. I spoke with Mr.Polk a long time ago at TCA shows but he never took my advice on the colored buttons.
Green for ''FAST''
Yellow for ''SLOW''
Blue for ''DIRECTION''
Red for ''EMERGENCY STOP''
Unfortunately, even with a LokProgrammer, the ESU Loksound decoders are by far the most complicated. I would suggest for future projects choose an easier sound decoder, like TCS WowSound decoders (which have a "talk back" programming option) or MRC sound decoders.
Remember too that sound decoders come with factory defaults already set up. You'll want to change the decoder ID number from 03 to your engine's number, but everything else is optional. You can adjust all the sounds and lights if you want, but you don't HAVE to. The defaults will work just fine. When you eventually do want to change something, and start getting into more complicated things, it will be worth it to get something like a Digitrax PR4 so you can connect up a programming track to your PC, and download the free "Decoder Pro" program from JMRI.
Except for needing to find room for a speaker and it's enclosure, installing a sound decoder isn't any harder than installing a non-sound decoder.
2ManyHobbeez ATLANTIC CENTRAL Do you know how many people told me that 15 years ago? "try it, you won't go back". I tried it, for hundreds of hours on the layouts of friends, I'm still using DC. But, I do recommend DCC to new people coming into the hobby. Sheldon Sheldon: My comment was not meant to be a DC vs DCC comparison. The OP expressed admiration for the capabilities of the LokSound decoder but also frustration with programming it. My suggestion is to consider the LokProgrammer hardware if you find yourself in that situation. To be sure, trying to program a decoder such as this by using the command station, or even DecoderPro will be frustrating and error prone. The LP makes it much easier, much faster, more comprehensive and a lot more fun. Other decoder manufacturers should follow ESU's lead and build their own user-friendly interfaces. Watching a YouTube video where the Soundtraxx guy explains how to tweak one of their decoders using direct CV manipulation makes my head spin. George
ATLANTIC CENTRAL Do you know how many people told me that 15 years ago? "try it, you won't go back". I tried it, for hundreds of hours on the layouts of friends, I'm still using DC. But, I do recommend DCC to new people coming into the hobby. Sheldon
Do you know how many people told me that 15 years ago? "try it, you won't go back".
I tried it, for hundreds of hours on the layouts of friends, I'm still using DC.
But, I do recommend DCC to new people coming into the hobby.
Sheldon
Sheldon:
My comment was not meant to be a DC vs DCC comparison. The OP expressed admiration for the capabilities of the LokSound decoder but also frustration with programming it. My suggestion is to consider the LokProgrammer hardware if you find yourself in that situation. To be sure, trying to program a decoder such as this by using the command station, or even DecoderPro will be frustrating and error prone. The LP makes it much easier, much faster, more comprehensive and a lot more fun. Other decoder manufacturers should follow ESU's lead and build their own user-friendly interfaces. Watching a YouTube video where the Soundtraxx guy explains how to tweak one of their decoders using direct CV manipulation makes my head spin.
George
SeeYou190 ATLANTIC CENTRAL In setting "A" it is like gently turning up the knob on a power pack, it maybe takes 3-4 seconds to go from 0 volts to full output. It provides smooth realistic starts with no real delay with any good running loco. Thanks for the information. This just makes my want one even more! -Kevin
ATLANTIC CENTRAL In setting "A" it is like gently turning up the knob on a power pack, it maybe takes 3-4 seconds to go from 0 volts to full output. It provides smooth realistic starts with no real delay with any good running loco.
Thanks for the information.
This just makes my want one even more!
-Kevin
Thirty years ago when they first came out, and command control was still a half dozen proprietary systems, and DCC was just being developed, and niether had wireless, it was the cats pajamas, a wireless throttle throttle with great speed control.
The other cool feature, it is full voltage pulse width modulation speed control.
So, all these modern DC constant brightness lighting boards, the lights come on full brightness, typically before the loco moves......kinda like DCC, but without having to push a button.
ATLANTIC CENTRALIn setting "A" it is like gently turning up the knob on a power pack, it maybe takes 3-4 seconds to go from 0 volts to full output. It provides smooth realistic starts with no real delay with any good running loco.
Living the dream.
2ManyHobbeez IDRick I retired at the end of December and just recently found that I was given an award with a nice stipend! Decided, cool, time to get that DCC system that I've wanted and add sound to my locomotives! Woohoo! Nice use for the stipend! My advice is take the rest of that stipend and buy the Lokprogrammer hardware. Play with it for a couple of days. You will have the time of your life and won't go back. George
IDRick I retired at the end of December and just recently found that I was given an award with a nice stipend! Decided, cool, time to get that DCC system that I've wanted and add sound to my locomotives! Woohoo! Nice use for the stipend!
I retired at the end of December and just recently found that I was given an award with a nice stipend! Decided, cool, time to get that DCC system that I've wanted and add sound to my locomotives! Woohoo! Nice use for the stipend!
My advice is take the rest of that stipend and buy the Lokprogrammer hardware. Play with it for a couple of days. You will have the time of your life and won't go back.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL Five simple buttons control the train - FASTER, SLOWER, EMERGENCY STOP, LEFT or RIGHT direction.
Is the rate of accelleration/decelleration with the FASTER ad SLOWER buttons adjustable?
I have never been a fan of momentum. Most of them take too long to get moving from zero.
The TE has an adjustable momentum feature. It is not something you adjust on the fly, but rather a preset acceleration rate you choose when you set up throttle. You can change it later, but not while running trains.
There are five settings.
The "no momentum" setting "A" still provides a smooth acceleration/deceleration curve as you hold the faster/slower buttons down.
I don't use the settings with more delay, I don't like momentum either.
In setting "A" it is like gently turning up the knob on a power pack, it maybe takes 3-4 seconds to go from 0 volts to full output. It provides smooth realistic starts with no real delay with any good running loco.
Same is true when slowing down.
EMERGENCY is like a kill switch.......instant 0 voltage.
I find the rate of acceleration to be perfect to give instant but smooth control.
You can just tap the buttons and move the voltage up or down a step or two, or you hold it and it ramps up, or down.
Another interesting feature - your train is running, you push the opposite direction button. Your train decelerates to zero voltage, the direction changes, and then it accelerates to the previous setting.
Once you learn to use it, this is very useful for switching.
I was a skeptical, I borrowed one from a friend and played with it quite a bit before going down this road. 18 years later I am still very happy with my choice.
I would never go back to a knob, or a throttle full of little buttons......
ATLANTIC CENTRALFive simple buttons control the train - FASTER, SLOWER, EMERGENCY STOP, LEFT or RIGHT direction.